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Mid-Life Crustacean

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"Mid-Life Crustacean"
SpongeBob SquarePants episode
Title card
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 15b
Directed by
Written by
Production code5572-210[1]
Original air dateJanuary 24, 2003 (2003-01-24)
Episode chronology
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"The Great Snail Race" 		Next →
"Born Again Krabs"
SpongeBob SquarePants (season 3)
List of episodes

"Mid-Life Crustacean" is the second segment of the 15th episode of the third season and the 55th overall episode of the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. The episode premiered on Nickelodeon on January 24, 2003.[2][3] It was directed by C. H. Greenblatt and Kaz written by Greenblatt, Kaz, and Mark O'Hare, with the animation directed by Frank Weiss. Chuck Klein serves as the storyboard artist.

The series focuses on the titular character and his antics and adventures with his friends in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. In the episode, Mr. Krabs realizes he is old, and desires to feel young again; he joins SpongeBob and Patrick on their big night out, only to discover it consists of mundane activities. He is disappointed until realizing that the itinerary culminates in a panty raid.

"Mid-Life Crustacean" has been well received by critics and fans; despite this, the episode was banned from Nickelodeon's rotation and the Paramount+ service in 2018, with the episode's panty raid scene often being cited as the reason for its removal. The episode and portions of it are officially available on YouTube, and it is featured in home media releases. "Mid-Life Crustacean"'s title is a pun on the phrase "midlife crisis."

Plot

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Mr. Krabs struggles to get out of bed; after getting up, he asks Pearl if she thinks he's old, which Pearl says she does. At the Krusty Krab, after overhearing a patron comparing him to an "old and dried out" Krabby Patty, he asks to join SpongeBob and Patrick's "big night out" in order to feel young again.

During the evening, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Mr. Krabs partake in bizarre and childish activities, none of which satisfies Mr. Krabs. At an arcade, SpongeBob, Patrick and several children ask Mr. Krabs if he's "feeling it" multiple times, causing him to lose his temper and berate the duo. Preparing to cancel his night out, Mr. Krabs changes his mind when Patrick reveals that they are going out on a panty raid.

When the group sneak into a house to grab a woman's pair of underwear from her dresser drawer, they are caught by the home's owner, Krabs' mother; SpongeBob and Patrick never told him it was her house they were raiding. Because of the boys' lie by omission, she grounds Mr. Krabs for the rest of the night; SpongeBob follows him and apologizes, to which Mr. Krabs forgives him, saying in regards to being forced to spend the night in his childhood bedroom: "I certainly feel younger". As SpongeBob and Patrick leave, Mr. Krabs is ordered by his mother to shut off his bedroom lights, to which he dejectedly abides.

Reception and controversy

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During the episode, Mr. Krabs (left) partakes in a panty raid with SpongeBob and Patrick to treat his midlife crisis.

Mid-life Crustacean is no longer rerunning on Nickelodeon as of 2018, and is one of the only installments of the SpongeBob franchise not available to watch on Paramount+. It is still available on home media releases and the full episode is available for purchase on YouTube and on iTunes(albeit only as part of the "From the Beginning Part 2" collection) and pieces of the episode can be still seen ongoing on the Nickelodeon and SpongeBob SquarePants official YouTube channels.

When the episode was removed from rotation, there was originally no reason given by Nickelodeon, but it was heavily suggested that the panty raid scene has led to its removal.[4][5][6] A Nickelodeon representative has claimed the episode was pulled because it was deemed inappropriate for young children, despite other episodes in the franchise containing adult and edgy humor.[7][4]

In a 2019 ranking of SpongeBob's top 100 episodes, TV Guide listed "Mid-Life Crustacean" as the 79th best episode.[8]

Allegra Frank at Slate commented in 2021 "...as a nostalgia buff who looks to Paramount+ solely to sate that need, seeing a small piece of SpongeBob history be stripped away by its parent company is jarring. There are tons of other 11-minute SpongeBob adventures to enjoy, but there's nothing like watching an episode and having that warm feeling of remembering it; I'm sad I won't get to have that with that now-infamous 'panty raid' episode anymore."[6] In a 2021 article discussing the controversy around the episode by Comic Book Resources, writer Reuben Baron considered it a great episode, reasoning "There's tons of great character-based humor driven by Mr. Krabs' mid-life crisis, Pearl's embarrassment about her dad and SpongeBob and Patrick's gleeful strangeness."[7]

The episode was accidentally made available for streaming in July 2023 due to a technical error on the Paramount+ channel on Prime Video. The glitch was fixed almost immediately after.[9]

References

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  1. ^ DataBase, The Big Cartoon. "SpongeBob SquarePants Episode Guide -Nicktoons Prods @ BCDB". Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDB).[dead link]
  2. ^ "SpongeBob SquarePants S3 E15 The Great Snail Race; Mid-Life Crustacean: Watch Full Episode Online". DIRECTV. Archived from the original on 2016-04-16. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
  3. ^ Dastoor, Vaspaan (March 27, 2021). "Nickelodeon Pulled A SpongeBob Episode Because It Was About A Pandemic". TheGamer. Archived from the original on May 19, 2022. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  4. ^ a b Petey Oneto (March 26, 2021). "SpongeBob SquarePants Episodes Pulled Over Storyline Concerns". IGN. Archived from the original on September 29, 2023. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
  5. ^ Diaz, Johnny (March 30, 2021). "Two SpongeBob SquarePants Episodes No Longer on Nickelodeon". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 25, 2022. Retrieved May 19, 2022 – via NYTimes.com.
  6. ^ a b Frank, Allegra (March 25, 2021). "Why Are These 11 Minutes Missing From SpongeBob on Paramount+?". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on October 25, 2022. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  7. ^ a b Reuben Baron (March 30, 2021). "SpongeBob SquarePants' Recently Banned Episode Was a Great One". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
  8. ^ "SpongeBob SquarePants' 100 Best Episodes Ranked". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on 2022-04-16. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
  9. ^ "Banned SpongeBob SquarePants Episode Returns Due to Glitch, Promptly Banned Again". 18 July 2023. Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
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